Flightmasters
Board Meeting
Item#1: Meeting with Kevin Bullard
Kevin’s Perspective: Tom L. asked Kevin to fill us in on all of the controversy regarding the future development of the ground around us and any possible sale of his property.
The developers have gotten the area approved for rezoning by the Elkhart County Commissioners.
They have several hurtles to face in developing the property.
1. Sewer and water to site. They either have to come to an agreement with the city on expenses or put in there on sewage and water treatment plants.
2. The have to build a full size bridge across Pine creek which until they want to spend a lot of money to do so will contain them on the rate of their expansion.
3. The nature of the soils. There are muck, peat and large amounts of topsoil that will need to be removed and the ground built up for it to be used for a building site and roadways. They will also need to dig out retention basins and ponds to generate enough fill. He threw out around 100,000 CY of dirt to move.
4. The developers have not come to an agreement on what they will pay Kevin for his property. Kevin is asking more than they are currently willing to pay. He said that if he decides to get on board with the development it probably wouldn’t happen until phase 3 of the overall project.
Kevin’s plans for the future is that he can see his family and himself continuing to raise cattle on the property for about the next 10 years, unless of course he gets some type of offer he can’t refuse. He doesn’t see the first 2 phases of the project stopping us from flying. But, he suggest that we look into any requirements by AMA that we stay X’ “distance” away from houses. This might give us a better indication.
Tom L. asked Kevin what we can do to be better tenants? Kevin praised us on being very good tenants. He asked us to keep the following in mind:
1. Keep our speed down when going down the lane. It is his opinion that this is what is causing the “wash board” affect and pot holes on the road. And while it may be impossible to keep this from happening, keeping a slow and steady speed will keep it to a minimum.
2. He’d like to see us draw up an agreement as to how much time we need in order to move the field out. This would provide us with enough notice to get everything moved out and vacated if he did sell the property. It was also suggested that we give him a time frame that we would prefer to know, so that we would have the time to actually build/acquire a new field as well. He made the statement that we had worked with him well and he would try and give us as much notice as he could.
3. He’d also like us to draw up a field schedule. When the field was open, during what times of the year. His concern is that durning the winter and spring months when we receive excess rains/snows that damage to the roadway and field is done. He’d like to see something written so everyone is on the same page.
The board asked the following questions of Kevin:
1. Would it be alright to put a sani-can close to his turn around instead of out on our field. It was thought it would be easier for trucks to service it and not damage the field. He thought that would be fine and we could do it on a trial basis to see how it affected him. We would need to coordinate the location of the sani-can with him if we decided to do it.
2. What restrictions on signage up front did he have on us? He didn’t have anything that came to mind, but me need to discuss actuall placement with him ahead of time.
3. Does any one hunt on the property? He said that not on his property, but believes there is someone in a black truck that bow hunts deer on the southern property. Also there is some one that is probably target shooting south of us.
Kevins last point was that if he witness’s something he doesn’t like he tends to take care of it right away. If someone is driving to fast he is not afraid to come out and tell them so. He means no one any disrespect, he just is more a “get it taken care of now” type of individual. Everyone thanked him for taking the time to meet with us. Tom L. suggested it might be a good idea to meet with him once a year. Kevin welcomed this, stating “It helps to keep the rumor mill in check”. Kevin left the meeting at this point.
Item #2 Events: Tom L. mentioned what events are we doing for this year? The following events are being considered:
1. Fun Fly this summer.
2. Junkyard build again this winter.
3. Upcoming – Mojo Build.
4. Tail gate swap.
1. Show possible flying videos from Discovery, Nova etc related to flying.
2. 2-4 stroke tunning
3. How to properly balance a prop.
4. How to build a foamy.
5. How to install retracts.
6. Dial in mixes and set ups on a airplane.
7. Set up CG’s, incidence.
Everyone thought this was a good idea.
Item#3: Club Funds: Harry brought up that our raw operating expenses were $4,400 last year, but overall the club spent $5,400 last year. This put us at a loss for last year. On the plus side, he has roughly $5,800 in the checking account right now. He said this should be enough to cover expenses for this year, so as we collect any other money he will look to buy CD’s as appropriate. We currently have 39 members paid up to date. Last year we had around 80 members. Harry mentioned that he felt this number was about average at this point in the year. A lot of members wait till flying season to re-up their membership. Denny L. mentioned that he had heard only a couple minor complaints about the dues. Everyone agreed that you’ll have that with any type of monetary increase. Harry asked about helping out people that couldn’t afford the dues increase. Tom L. and Thad B. mentioned that its hard to make exceptions for people and not risk offending or alienating some club members. It was thought that if the club wants to help fellow members out it be on an individual bases and not done by the club. Harry asked about an exception for people with medical and health problems. It was tabled for future discussion.
Harry shared with us the AMA paperwork that he just receives that must be filled out every year for us to recharter our club. We must have a contact person for this. Tom L. asked Harry to remain the contact person and he agreed to it. The AMA charges us $30 per year plus we pay $60 every year to have the landowner insured. Harry mentioned that he was going to be looking for a new bank as “Chiphone” isn’t working with us like they used to any more. We also need to put another signer on the checking account we must have 2 signers for anything over $250. Tom L. volunteered and everyone agreed. It was asked if all the club officers immune to any potential lawsuits. Harry said that we were as long as our Buisness entity report is updated. He mentioned that at one point in the past it was let go for 10 years. We must keep it up to date every year. He currently does this through our attorney and suggest keeping it in an attorney’s hand or risk it not being done properly like before. Harry either calls the attorney or has checked with the Secretary of State to make sure that Flight Masters is chartered properly. Jim B. asked if we were a LLC or what? Harry said we are currently incorporated.
Harry shared with us that in the past we didn’t need to file any paper work with the feds. But now that we are a 501c we must file paperwork “via email” end of the 5 month fiscal year – which is December 31st.
Harry must also track each member and their AMA number and send it in once a year. He also redlines AMA current roster of Flightmaster members for those that drop out and send it in to them.
Item#4: Flyer & Sign:
Item#5: Field Maintenance: Jim B. mentioned that it is to early for him to have prices yet on fertilizer and grub killer. Denny O. mentioned that he has some volunteers for mowing, but could use more. Tom L. asked for ideas on areas we need to address at spring clean up. Thad B. suggested cleaning up the entrance and filling anymore holes up. Tom L. suggested trimming the briars around the chained entrance way.
Upcoming club meeting:
The upcoming meeting would be Febuary 16th at Homan Lumber for the first airplane build.
Upcoming board meeting:
Is March 8th
Other Notes: Stand Treadway was unable to make the February 9th meeting.